Published at 28th of October 2025 4:46 am

Chapter deluge 16.7

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Pheiri gunned his engines nuclear heartbeat pounding in his guts, tremors of coiled power shuddering through his cockpit, the full weight of an ancient war-machine pawing at the ground, poised for the charge.

On the monitors, fifty feet out in front, Perpetuas face twisted into a scowl.

Punch it, little brother! Howl screeched through Elpidas lips.

Pheiri leapt forward, tracks spinning and skidding for a split-second, then biting deep into the concrete slurry and black mold with an almighty roar. Sudden acceleration crushed Elpida into her seat. The storm-tossed, mold-encrusted ruins of the corpse-city sped by on Pheiris monitors, a blur of black and grey. Rubble scree, loose steel, and pulped mold flew out behind him in a waterlogged shower of debris.

Perpetua stood her ground.

She loomed massive in Pheiris monitors, framed and bracketed and highlighted by his sensor readout data, duplicated to show estimated weight, nanomachine density, and all the possible actions she might take to evade Pheiris charge. The other six Necromancers paused, to watch.

Perpetua shifted her footing and raised her right hand at a forty-five degree angle. Steel anchors shot out from her shoulder and elbow, burying themselves deep in the concrete. Her legs turned to steel, thickened into foundations, and fused with the ground. Her scowl opened into a bare-toothed snarl.

Her hand lengthened, sharpened, and darkened, into a twelve-foot lance of black metal. The tip glinted, diamond-hard, poised to catch Pheiris prow.

Howl opened Elpidas mouth again, and howled at the top of her lungs. Awoooooo!

Elpida tried to brace for impact, but she couldnt resist the rush, roaring alongside Howl; the decision had already been made, there was less than a second in which to react. The others were paralysed, shocked, or worse. Kagami screamed for Pheiri to change course while Sky shouted an incoherent cry of panic; Serin growled behind her mask, tight and urgent, like a cornered animal, and even Atyle let out a soft gasp, audible over the roar of Pheiris body and Howls war cry. Only Shilu was silent and unmoved, straight-backed in her seat.

Perpetuas face filled a whole screen in close-up, eyes red-rimmed, tear tracks dry on her cheeks, hate in her peeled-back lips. The lance-tip glistened as if slick with poison, the point a dot of lightless black.

Pheiri flash-started his shields at the last second with a concussive thump of pressure. The lights in the cockpit flickered.

Shimmering walls of electric blue, an interlocking mail-matrix of white hexagons, triple sheets of glimmering energy, and the final smooth dome-curve of shining white. Like a flower blossoming in fast-forward, Pheiri was wrapped in the grace and protection of Telokopolis, of the people who had made him, of the engineers and technicians to whom Elpida knew she owed everything.

Active shielding crashed into Perpetua like a brick into a stalk of wheat. Her lance crumpled and broke, her anchors tore from the ground, and her humanoid disguise fell beneath Pheiris whirling tracks.

Her mangled body was ejected from Pheiris rear a split-second later, a smear of crimson and white thrown aside amid the torrent of black and grey.

Howl laughed through Elpidas lips and Elpida laughed with her, slapping Pheiris consoles with wild abandon. Serin joined in, roaring with mirth behind her metal mask. Sky whooped and cheered and punched the air, spitting spacer-cant at speed that even nanomachine translation could not quite render into meaning. Atyle let out a single high note of song-like praise. Kagami was babbling, eyes darting from screen to screen, but she was laughing too, losing herself to the unexpected victory. Elpida heard a secondary cheer go up from Pheiris other end the distant echo of Victoria and the others in the crew compartment.

Well done, indeed, said Shilu.

Ha! Kagami barked. Dont celebrate so early, that trick will only work once! And look, look at that! She jabbed at one of Pheiris screens, showing the view to the rear.

Perpetua was already getting back up, her broken body re-kitting itself at speed, blood and bones flowing back into place, staggering to her feet. She dwindled as Pheiri picked up additional speed, rocketing across the ruined landscape. But the other six Necromancers were turning to follow, heading after Pheiri.

Three of them simply sprinted from a standing start, moving at impossible speed, feet flying across broken concrete, darting between the towering black mold-stalks. Two of them leapt, soaring from concrete outcrops to twisted steel wreckage, legs propelling them into the air far harder than any natural human frame could have endured, landing in showers of storm-water and shredded black mold, leapfrogging in Pheiris torn-up wake. The sixth Necromancer grew a quartet of steel wings and took to the air, flying low through the wreckage of the city, her body turning sharp and black and fluted as a gutting knife.

Elpida sighed with relief. The primary unknown for this engagement had been clarified; the Necromancers were forced to mount their pursuit in physical space. They could not simply move through the network and appear beneath Pheiri at will, or decant themselves from the air, or jump ahead of him by re-extruding themselves from the substrate of the city.

They were not network gods. They were limited.

Oh shit, oh shit! Sky hissed, leaning forward in her chair, even as Pheiris speed on uneven ground tossed her against the straps. No no no no, this is some fucked up nanomachine shit! Ive seen how this goes, I know how this goes! We cant outrun them forever in mechanical, we cant!

Shut up! Kagami snapped over her shoulder. Were not out of the woods yet, yes, we

The boughs of the new world sprout on every side, said Atyle, breathless and quivering.

A particularly thick cluster of black-mold bamboo-stalks was framed in Pheiris forward cameras; there was no route around this cluster, so Pheiri slammed right on through. Mold-stalks cracked and crumpled before his shields and beneath the weight of his body, crumpling into dry splinters, turned to wet pulp and a shower of sooty residue. The cockpit bounced and jolted, shaking everyone in their seats.

Then Pheiri was out the other side, back into the striped landscape of grey and black, the concrete ruins coated in glistening, pulsating, spreading mold. The mountain range of the graveworm filled the horizon, creeping higher and higher with every metre of progress.

Six Necromancers converged on Pheiris path, some keeping flank, a pair closing on his rear.

Theyre not fucking woods! Kagami screeched. Theyre not even mushrooms. Commander! Elpida! Whats the plan now?!

Elpida took a split second to think.

The worm-guard were still nowhere to be seen. Pheiri could not keep up this flight forever. And where had Lykke gone? Perhaps she wouldnt be coming back this time.

Only one option, Elps, Howl growled in the back of her head. And give em hope when you do it.

Elpida raised her left hand and pointed at the forward views, at the mountain range of the graveworm. Her hand was jolted and jogged as Pheiri raced over the uneven ground, slewing and skidding through concrete slurry, over little streams of debris, through thickly pulsing mats of black mold.

We head for the worm, Elpida said. If the worm-guard are still sheltered beneath the curvature, theyll come out when we get close. The game of chicken is still on. And were going to win it, one way or another.

Serin purred, And if the worm is dead, Coh-mander?

If its dead? Elpida echoed. She couldnt help a tiny laugh. Then its the greatest carrion find in the ecosystem. If the worm is dead and the worm-guard are all gone, were gonna find a way inside. Or make our own.

The fuk, Elps?

Give them hope, Howl. You said it. Even if its a long shot. And if Im right

Ah, said Shilu. The ultimate revenant meal.

You are mad, Coh-mander, Serin laughed. But it would be a unique catch.

Fucking hell, Kagami spat. Fuck, fuck fuck. Alright, fine! As long as we dont have to blast our way in, because I dont know if thats even possible.

What else could we do, anyway?! Sky shouted. Turn around and go back!? Who the fuck is gonna save us back there, huh?! Maybe the Commander is right, yeah? Maybe the worm is gonna wake up and end all this shit for us, yeah? Yeah? Come on, yeah? Come on, you great big fucking worm, wake the fuck up, yeah!?

Elpida scanned Pheiris screens and readouts, trying to take in all six of the pursuing Necromancers; Perpetua had fallen behind, barely a dot at the furthest reaches of Pheiris sensors. The others didnt look human anymore, even if they still had human forms, so much more clean and untouched than even the most unmodified of revenants. The three sprinters flew across the ground, blurring, indistinct, their legs like pointed spears, their bodies streamlined for forward motion. The two leaping Necromancers arced through the air and crashed down like shells with each impact, coiled like springs for the next jump. The flyer looked like a metal corvid, a raven of black iron and sharp edges. She was gaining fast, long dark hair streaming out behind as she began a dive.

Pheiri, Elpida said. Do you have firing solutions for

Pheiri flashed up three screens of green text targeting solutions, weapon readouts, firing arcs. A split-second later he painted all six Necromancers with target-locks and range estimates. The cockpit shuddered as weapon-domes and missile irises flowered open up on his hull, as autocannon shells cycled into place and automatic loaders spun up, as point-defence batteries and chemical flame-throwers and a dozen other flavours of firepower readied themselves.

Pheiri bristled a warning, broadcasting it out in all directions, all mediums, all frequencies. A machine-code pulse which meant CEASE OR DIE.

Pheiri, Elpida said quickly. You know you dont have to wait for my permission to fire.

>n

Kagami burst out laughing, eyes wide and bloodshot, lips peeled back. Hes not! Hes waiting until hes got them close enough to do some real damage! I rue that I ever doubted you, you beautiful base-8 bastard, you! Kagami laughed again, edging closer to hysteria; Elpida decided to let her laugh, it was better than fear and paralysis. Hes a genius, Elpida, he doesnt need us for anything but moral support!

Fire whenever you like, Elpida said, and gripped the armrest of her seat. Buy us as much time as you can. Get us to that worm, Pheiri.

>y

Several seconds sped by, Pheiris engines roaring, tracks crunching through concrete, throwing up sprays of watery black mold. The Necromancers edged closer, closing the gap, darting through the swaying stalks of sprouting black. The flyer dipped. The sprinters arced inward. Targeting arrays tightened.

Elpida held her breath, fingers squeezing the armrest of her seat, the stump of her right arm throbbing with each heartbeat, aching beneath the blood-spotted dressing. She could do nothing now but place her faith in Pheiri. And she trusted him, her little brother, no less than she had trusted her sisters in life. He would see them all the way to the worm, whatever it took.

She just hoped that would be far enough.

Pheiri opened up like an echo of the hurricane.

A storm of autocannon rounds drowned the trio of sprinters in a sea of lead, chewing them to pieces, tossing them to the ground like rag dolls, turning the concrete slurry around them to dust and pulp. High-explosive missiles knocked the pair of leapers out of the sky with staccato air-burst detonations, then kept them pinned with salvo after salvo, lighting up the ruins with flowers of orange and red, thumping and pounding the concrete and mold into quicksand. Point-defence batteries turned their noses skyward and punched the flyer into a fine red mist with thousands of high-velocity rounds; the discharge rang through Pheiris hull like the roaring of a steel ocean. The flyer vanished; Pheiri followed up with a barrage of missiles and flak, choking the sky black and dead.

Fuck your air power! Kagami shouted. She made a rude gesture with her right hand. Back on the fucking dirt with you, and stay down!

As the first salvo finished falling, the Necromancers stood back up.

Pheiris opening shots had taken them by surprise, treating their newly-printed bodies as if they were real revenants. A moments adaptation and they were springing back to their feet, lost biomass flowing back together like magnetic fluid, limbs sucking back into place, flesh re-molding lithe and slender forms anew. Bullets passed through bodies that opened like water, snagging on bone, only slowing them now. Explosions still tossed them about like rag dolls, but in half a minute more they were adapting rapidly, with plated exteriors, suits of bone and metal, hands and forearms sprouting into shields.

Pheiri kept firing, but the six Necromancers kept coming, wading through a sea of bullets and explosions. The two leapers tried to resume their motion; Pheiri knocked one down with a barrage of missiles and autocannon fire, but the other one powered on through.

Holy fuck, Sky said, voice shaking. Holy fuck, fuck me, fuck me, this is exactly what I thought they would do! You cant fight nano-shit with mundane firepower, you just cant, fuck, shit, fuck!

Hes buying us time! Kagami screeched back. Let him work!

Elpida raised her voice, cool and calm. Pheiri knows what hes doing. Hell get us to the graveworm.

And then what? Howl growled.

Then we get inside, one way or another.

Elps. Howl gulped. Let me go look for the worm-guard. I can slip out and back without you even noticing, but

Elpida snarled out loud. We dont know if the worm-guard are still alive or active. And theres seven Necromancers out there who could rip you out of the network and kill you. No, Howl. You stay put, you stay in my head.

Elps, I can

Nobody gets sacrificed, nobody goes alone, nobody

Up in the sky, a wet red form sucked itself back together from particulate matter, like mist condensing on glass. The flying Necromancer made herself whole again, a knife-thing of black and grey, steel and charred bone, like a raven made of iron.

She twisted, head down, and dove straight through the cloud of explosions and flak.

The Necromancer fell so fast that Elpida barely saw how she did it letting point-defence rounds pass through her nanomachine-flesh without resistance, turning her wings into backward-facing blades to speed her fall, making her head into a pointed ram of metal. A black dart aimed at the exact apex of Pheiris shields.

The Necromancer turned herself into a living bullet, and hit Pheiris shielding with an earth-shattering crack.

Pheiris shields overloaded, flooding most of his screens with white static. The lights in the cockpit flickered as the shields came back online. The screens jerked and juddered back to life.

The raven-like Necromancer had landed. She stood on Pheiris hull, wings vanishing, arms unfurling like an iron flower.

She was all dark metal and flowing limbs, long dark hair dancing like seaweed. Her face was a black beak beneath a pair of human eyes. Her hands and feet were massive, tipped by six-inch talons.

Far faster than Elpida could shout an order, Pheiris point-defence weaponry and close-in flame-throwers turned inward, turrets swivelling, mounts whipping round, target-locks and danger close warnings flashing on half a dozen screens. Sheets of flame, close-range electrical discharges, and point-defence rounds slammed into the intruder, trying to take her apart before shecould move.

But the Necromancer ignored the flame even as her flesh bubbled and burst. Electric discharges made her jerk and jump, but her limbs ratcheted outward, extending and expanding even as they spasmed, to smash the guns and mangle their mounts. Point-defence rounds passed through her flesh as if she wasnt there, chewing into Pheiris own armour beneath her. She smashed those guns to scrap next, limbs lengthening into hooked poles to wreck Pheiris inner defences.

Then she looked down, at the carbon bone-mesh armour between her taloned feet, Pheiris scarred and pitted bone-white hide.

She raised one fist, rammed her claws into Pheiris skin, and ripped away a handful of armour.

A dozen cockpit screens turned blood-red. An alarm sounded, deep inside Pheiris structure. His screens flickered back and forth between the intruding Necromancer and self-repair readouts. Reams of glowing green text screamed warnings and scrolled through procedures that Elpida hadnt seen before.

///ALERT

///SUPPORT REQUEST INFANTRY

///ERROR division comms non-contact

///SUPPORT REQUEST INFANTRY

///ERROR division comms non-contact

///SUPPORT REQUEST INFANTRY

///ERROR division comms non-contact

Were being boarded! Kagami screamed. Commander, Pheiri doesnt have

Shilu, with me, now! Elpida snapped.

She unbuckled her straps and shot to her feet, almost losing her balance as Pheiris forward momentum carried him past another slurry-canyon of broken concrete. Shilu was already out of her seat and out of her disguise. A scarecrow of black metal sprinted the few paces to the spinal corridor. Elpida hauled herself past the other seats, following in Shilus wake.

Coh-mander, Serin rasped, rising from her seat.

I dont have time to argue! Elpida shouted back. She didnt pause, hurrying into the spinal corridor, gripping handholds wherever she could find them as Pheiri slewed to the left and right, his tracks roaring through the concrete outside. That Necromancer will take you apart, Serin, she called over her shoulder. Shilus a Necro too, and Ive got Howl, so all I need to do is touch her. Come if you want, but its a big risk.

Not acting is greater risk, Serin muttered behind her mask. I can hit any corpse rapist, anywhere.

Elpida hurled herself down Pheiris spinal corridor, heedless of the bumpy ride. She protected the stump of her right arm by keeping it pinned to her side, but she still banged her head, her left elbow, her hips, her knuckles, her wrist. She powered on through the pain; it didnt matter, not with a Necromancer tearing into Pheiris hide a few feet above her head. He needed infantry support, and she was going to make sure he got it.

She burst out into the crew compartment to an audience of horrified stares. Victoria was pale, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. Hafina was half out of her seat, strapping Melyn into another. Ilyusha was baring her teeth. Amina was crying. Eseld had an arm wrapped around Cyneswiths shoulders.

Stay here! Elpida said. Stay strapped in!

She didnt have time to ensure they followed her orders; Shilu was already vanishing up the dark and narrow stairwell that led to the top hatch. Elpida didnt pause to grab a firearm; she had a pistol in one pocket of her armoured coat if she really needed it, but her best weapon was Howls network permissions.

Elpida pounded after Shilu, with Serin right behind her. Shilu hit the hatch a second before Elpida, yanking the manual release and throwing it wide.

Shilu shot forward, a metal scarecrow erupting from Pheiris hide. Elpida scrambled after her, out onto Pheiris exterior deck.

Sheets of shimmering white and electric blue arced overhead, pinned between mail-matrix layers of interlocking hexagons; Pheiris shields blocked most of the wind even as he roared and reared through the landscape of concrete ruin and swaying stalk-mold. The sky was a black cauldron churning with the aftermath of the hurricane, a thin drizzle of rain passing through the shields to speckle Pheiris hide. His weapons were still firing, autocannons whirring and spitting like gigantic insects, missile pods coughing and belching as he kept the other five Necromancers at bay. Elpidas eardrums ached. Her feet threatened to slip as Pheiri bucked and skidded through the corpse-city.

The graveworm occupied half the sky, so tall it seemed like the edge of the world, a wave of grey metal ready to crash down on Pheiri and Elpida and the Necromancers, and drown them all.

In the middle of the open space on Pheiris outer deck, framed by the bone-white stalagmites of his weapon mounts, the forest of his horned and curled bone armour, crouched a Necromancer like a black iron raven. She was squatting over a shallow wound in Pheiris armour.

The iron raven straightened up just in time to repel Shilus assault.

Black arm-blades met curved talons in a lightning-fast clash of metal; the iron raven towered over Shilu, easily eleven or twelve feet tall. She cocked her head, bobbing it from side-to-side as Shilu hopped back and darted at her again. The raven tried to flow around Shilus strikes, her own blackened flesh stuttering and jerking beneath the blades. But Shilu was too fast, too experienced, and she knew how to fight other Necromancers.

Chunks of steaming meat flew from the ravens flank only to turn into blobs of oily silver liquid, flowing back toward her as fast as Shilu could carve. The raven raked claws across Shilus chest, but Shilu was pure metal now, and shrugged off each blow, using the ravens momentum against her.

But the claws left deep gouges in Shilus black metal. She was forced back, one step, then two, then three. The raven grew taller, beak opening in a birdlike grin, edges glinting with acid or poison or something worse. She snapped at the air; Shilu was forced to dance aside.

Elpida keyed her comms headset. I need an opening.

Two voices replied. Kagami with a screech Yes! Yes I fucking know! and Serin: Coh-mander.

Elpida didnt need a reply from Shilu. The ex-Necromancer knew exactly what to do.

Howl? Ready?

Always and always, Elps! Lets turn this bitch inside out by her arsehole!

Elpida strode forward across the listing, lurching deck, directly toward the iron raven, still locked in combat with Shilu, sword-arms and claws a blur of motion. Elpida flexed her left hand, making and unmaking a fist, making sure she was ready. A tingle started in her fingers and palm as Howl prepared to go to work. Pheiris guns roared and barked on all sides.

Twelve paces, eleven paces, ten paces. Elps, its now or never!

Now, Elpida said into her headset.

Three dark shapes darted out from behind the crags of Pheiris armour the trio of heavy scout drones that Kagami had tucked away after Pheiri had successfully left the tomb. The drones raced toward the iron raven from three different angles, opening weapon ports, spitting bullets and bolts, forcing the Necromancer to swipe at them with her claws, buying Shilu a few inches of footing.

One drone ducked, one drone weaved, and one drone was shattered into a million pieces by the Necromancers black steel talons.

A split-second later, the crack-crack-crack of Serins high powered rifle came from behind Elpida. Three anti-materiel rounds passed within a few feet of her head and slammed into the Necromancers chest, tearing at black meat, twisting her metal innards, and punching out through her back. The iron raven lost her balance, talons skidding, arms wind-milling, surprised by the simple efficacy of being shot.

Shilu pounced. Two black swords hacked one of the ravens taloned hands to pieces, tearing it free in a welter of blood and bone. Shilu hurled it away and ducked aside as the iron raven tried to recover.

The Necromancer blinked.

Elpida felt her body freeze, Necromancer network permissions inning her muscles in place. Over the comms, Serin managed a grunt as she was frozen too. The surviving pair of drones dropped to the deck, immobilized.

Shilu kept fighting, darting for the Necromancers other arm, forcing her attention to snap round.

Howl!

I got you, Elps. I got you.

Howl took over Elpidas body, breaking down the external network permissions. Her face ripped into a grin as she strode straight forward, right into the melee.

With the Raven distracted for a crucial moment, Howl walked Elpida right inside the Necromancers guard, wound back her left fist, and punched the Raven in the face. A tingle shot down Elpidas arm and into her hand, exploding with a haze of blurred sensation in the moment of impact, as if something had passed from her and into the iron raven.

Bony beak structure snapped sideways. Black eyes flew open in surprise. The Raven-Necro was frozen for a moment, stuck in a half-recoiled pose, one arm thrown wide.

Shilu took a step back, arm-blades held at the ready.

Howd that fucking feel, hey? Howl said with Elpidas voice. Never had that before, have you? Howd you like some more

The iron raven straightened back up, towering over Elpida, Howl, and Shilu. The beak clacked shut, then opened again, edges dripping with clear fluid that hissed in the open air.

She didnt look the least bit pained.

Hnnnggggrk, she gurgled, voice like a shattered wind instrument. You. Ghost in a zombie. Perpetua warned us about you.

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